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Just a thought as i'm thinking of getting a new project

why aren't boat canopies made out of the same material tents are made from?

they are waterproof and have windows sewn into them, just a lot lighter than the usual vinyl/canvas

and easier to chuck in the washing machine if needed lol

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Modern thin tent material is not very UV resistant and very quickly becomes brittle enough to put your fingers through it easily, as I once found out much my embarrassment at a camping centres outdoor display. 

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If you think about it. Boat canopies are still made from the materials tents used to be made from years ago for all the reasons above. When very small and up for an adventure I remember sleeping in a ridge tent in the garden made from heavy duty canvas where you could roll up the sides and stuff like that. Over it was a much thinnner fly sheet made of waterproof materials. Colours were khaki for the fly sheet  and Khaki for the tent and orange for the end pieces where you put all the baggage.. Yes it was surplus, all the equipment for it used to fit into an old Army kit bag and the primus was kept in a metal cylinder and everything else was in a wooden box that used to at one point hold two mortar shells. That's what happens when your dad was of the wartime generation. He had a reserved occupation (toolmaker) for four years then they let him join the signals where he served in the far east and India.

He spent quite some time as  military courier and his stories of travelling the whole length of India and what he had in his Bren gun Ammo pouches are controversial these days but nothing too special in that time. Honest provost marshal would I lie.

 

M

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If you do make your own canopy make sure you use the proper UV resistant thread. It is a bit more expensive but well worth it. If you can get the silicone coated stuff you will find it is much better as it runs through the sewing machine very smoothly. Also the proper thread will not "wick" where the thread gets wet and leads the water through the seams, dripping all over your cockpit.

Please do use a quality fabric as there is a lot of work involved which would be wasted if the canopy fell apart in a couple of years. A friend of mine used a cheap acrylic canvas and after a year's use it went brittle and he found that a large sea bird had landed on the canopy and put its claws right through the canvas.

The materials for the whole canopy for your boat should cost in the region of £300. Have a look at the Acorn Canvas website, they will supply you with everything you need and provide an excellent prompt service. Having a canopy made will cost you between £500 to £800 and possibly more.

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Smitch:

Just to give you an idea of the quantity of material you will need, I bought 9 metres of acrylic polyurethane coated canvas and I still had a metre left over. Your cockpit, if that is your boat on your profile appears to be a bit bigger than mine so you will need a bit more. The material is 1.5 metres wide and I paid £17.95 per metre for it. This is quite a comparable price for such a quality material. If the pennies will not run to that price Acorn Canvas do a non PU coated material for £15.79 per metre  You might just get away with one 1oz cone of thread to complete your project. Make sure you use the correct size of needle in the machine otherwise you are in for a lot of grief.

Also, do what I did not and buy some of their basting tape, it holds everything together whilst you stitch it together. It makes the job much easier.

Do not use leather stitching needles as they sometimes have a chisel point and tear the cloth.

Good luck, and let us know how you get on.

Thingy.

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proper machine leather point needles should have a triangular cross section and be sharp on those edges to cut through the leather, I have known some with a flat cross section at 45 degrees to the direction of the seam, but they dont sew leather so well. I would not recommend either for cloth as they will cut the threads rather than piercing a hole between the weave.

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50 minutes ago, grendel said:

proper machine leather point needles should have a triangular cross section and be sharp on those edges to cut through the leather, I have known some with a flat cross section at 45 degrees to the direction of the seam, but they dont sew leather so well. I would not recommend either for cloth as they will cut the threads rather than piercing a hole between the weave.

Looks like model of BA is going to have a canvas top too lol...

Thanks for the info on leather sewing needles, we were advised to use them for the new vinyl cockpit cushions in our boat, I will have a close look at the profile of the point.

The cushions, well the bases and the foam are having a last trim before we take them home to make up.

We have gone for larger thicker cushions, 95% of the time there are just the two of us on board, so comfort not utility. Coach rather than bus seating, if you know what I mean lol.

Quite a bit of support joinery to do, but we are here 2 out of 3 weeks now. last night was our first of 7 on board.

Best regards,

Richard 

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No, I used to sew leather when doing leatherwork for my viking re-enactment, I had an old heavy duty singer sewing machine, which also got used for sewing the canvas for the viking tents (one was an old theatre backdrop curtain) - ever tried sewing a tent where the canvas was over twenty feet square- with ends attached to that. (the tent got the nickname Canterbury Cathedral as our group was based in Canterbury, and it was at least twice the size of the next tent). the canvas from this tent is still in my attic (the wood gave out years ago) but I dont know if the moths have got at it over the years.

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On 26/06/2017 at 11:22 AM, Malanka said:

He spent quite some time as  military courier and his stories of travelling the whole length of India and what he had in his Bren gun Ammo pouches are controversial these days but nothing too special in that time. Honest provost marshal would I lie.

Rene's dad was in India between the wars, and brought home a monkey! Get that through customs!! She thinks the whole regiment brought some creature or other back.

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Steve.

I don't know if you have ever had experience in this sort of project before but what you need to do is to sort out the framework for your canopy first. Next, you secure it on the boat as square as you can using some strong cord. Now you have something to work on. Now you need to make templates or patterns whatever you want to call them.

Acorn Canvas do supply some heavy duty polythene sheet for this job but if you can obtain a bit of heavy duty polythene sheet from other sources it will work admirably and be cheaper.

Cut the polythene to shape and stick it to the frame with duck tape and make adjustments using a felt pen and scissors. this way, if you make a mistake you are not using the expensive canvas and can even patch the mistakes with a bit of poly and duck tape Once you have got your templates right then you can use them to mark and cut your canvas just allowing a quarter of an inch all way around for stitching. I used yellow kids colouring pencils to mark mine out. You can buy soapstone pencils for this purpose if you want but I like to keep the cost down. 

You can attempt that fancy seam they use on jeans but in my case I just stitched the seam, folded the selvedge down and stitched it again. It is not as strong but I find it quite adequate.

If you want to put windows in your canopy there are some interesting videos on the subject on You Tube that tell you how to do it.

Incidentally, my canopy was knocked up on my mum's old Singer sewing machine left to me by my mum, made in 1884 (the machine, not mum) and still going strong. Sadly, it outlived mum but bless her she showed me everything I know about sewing machines. I used to turn the handle for her when she used to make her own dresses when I was a little kid. What an education I had from my parents! Dad also taught me everything I know about engines.

Thingy. 

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When designing a new canopy think about where the poles are going to rest when folded down as well or they will be a PITA in the wrong place, when I had a canopy made for a norman 25 that I had cut the aft cabin off I planned in sliding mounts so when dropped the front pole hooked over the screen and sat out of the way and the rear pole slid forward so it didn't hang over the back of the boat too far, it worked very well and the screen could still be dropped in seconds with the pole in front of it.

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have you got any pics of the norman?

i actually did the canopy 2 years ago so this is kind of an old thread.

but i will say the canopy isn't very good, it does the job and isn't bad but now i see others about i realise i did things wrong, ie the tops i made them go down the sides too far and the sides are smaller.

I'm actually in the process of buying a norman 20 which i will need to make the frame and canopy and actually everything as it's just a shell i think, but i do like a project :)

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i still have 3/4 cone of the proper thread i got when i did my old canopy which is handy.

yes i used the sticky tape which helped.

if anyone has a norman 20 i would love to see how the frame is positioned etc for my reference please

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Just now, Dilligaf said:

When designing a new canopy think about where the poles are going to rest when folded down as well or they will be a PITA in the wrong place, when I had a canopy made for a norman 25 that I had cut the aft cabin off I planned in sliding mounts so when dropped the front pole hooked over the screen and sat out of the way and the rear pole slid forward so it didn't hang over the back of the boat too far, it worked very well and the screen could still be dropped in seconds with the pole in front of it.

Quite right Dilligaf, just standing, having a look and thinking things out first is always the best policy.

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1 hour ago, thingamybob said:

Quite right Dilligaf, just standing, having a look and thinking things out first is always the best policy.

Don't be silly, it was planned in a pub! As was the decision to cut the cabin off in the first place. :default_biggrin:

It started looking like this.

genie1.jpg

Went through the hands of a major bodger.

hack1.jpg

And ended up like this.

canopy2.jpg

There's more piccies at my old webpage.

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Just 12v, the gas/240/12 are the ones that eat batteries as they use a heating element to work, the fridge in question was great for smaller boats as it was a drawer fridge mounted below a dinette seat with the compressor unit unwound and fed through to the base of the cupboard beside it, we once forgot to turn it off and left the drawer open over a really hot and humid week, when we returned the next weekend there was still frost on the evaporator plate and the outboard still started (albeit a bit slow to crank), that was a bloody good fridge (waeco with danfoss compressor).

I wouldn't touch a gas/240/12 fridge.

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